"But you don't, do you?" Percy asked, turning to a huge bin of lemons. He suppressed a look of alarm when she mentioned salty seadogs, but couldn't quite withhold a tug of his collar. "Er, yes," he said. He was no stranger to feminine wiles, or the extent a man would go to in order to impress a woman. "I imagine that's true." He cleared his throat delicately.
"Well, you can never be too sure about Dweedum bugs," he said, even though he'd never encountered one, or even the trace of one. "As for the rumors, well, ah..." He gave her a sympathetic wince. "Those might be based in truth. But surely you wouldn't have anything to worry about where that's concerned." He lifted his brows for confirmation.